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Time Management Tips for Today

Last week I shared about time management for daily living. Today I would like to encourage you with some practical tips that have made an impact in my life concerning my time management.

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:” Eccl 3:1

Timer for Your Time Management

I have had a couple of friends who have implement timers in their lives. At first the idea intimidated me. Then I decided to give it a try.

So I got an app for my phone – one that allows me to use more than one timer. I chose such an app because I use “block timing”. I set given times, such as spending time on my online ministry. I give it an overall block of 2 hours and within those 2 hours I may spend 20 minutes catching up on emails another 20 minutes visiting blogs, etc. I will share a little more in details about this below when I speak to you about creating a schedule.

Now when I finally decided to get serious I experimented. I know my friends have had success using timers. I, for one, wanted to see if the timer was truly effective for me. Alright, in truth I was still quite skeptical. In my experiment I implemented the timer then in the following task I did not.

What I discovered is when I did not use a timer I definitely wasted a lot of time especially on Social media. I was just scrolling up and down my newsfeed not being effective in the Lord and ministering in the lives of others.

In fact my actions sparked some thoughts which I wrote about in a previous post the Facebook Busybody Temptation. Very convicting.

My experiment proved the scripture principle that says, “…but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.” Proverbs 29:15 In my case, bringing my Heavenly Father to shame.

So I conclude the timer is a tremendously helpful tool to keep you from being idle. When you know you have a given amount of time, as I do now, to get a job done you are more apt to be focused.

Setting Your Priorities Straight

Setting your priorities straight is something I mentioned this on my previous post on time management. And if you applied yourself to write down where you are spending and combine it with a timer to limit your time in a given task now you can evaluate your priorities even closer. You can now see.

Now don’t let the truth discourage you but rather take charge and responsibility for your time. Take a serious look at what your responsibilities are. I want to share with you one thing that can make a difference in your entire time management endeavor.

Scripture says, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and is righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matt 6:33

The Lord must be first in your life in your time management in order to see success in other areas. I highly recommend that you seek the Lord in the earliest part of your day if possible. At first your time with the Lord may seem difficult or impossible, especially if you are not managing other areas in your life.

All kinds of excuses start pouring out. “I don’t have time in the mornings” “I am not a morning person.”

It may be difficult at first and even impossible. But let me allow you in on a little secret, impossible, is right where God works best

“And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.” Mark 10:27

And here is the best tip I ever got when putting God first. Start small, start with 5 minutes if that is what you are at. Now in the next section you will see some examples of how my starting small has tremendously increased. How the one thing of putting God first has permeated every area of my time management.

Creating a Pattern for Your Schedule

In order to get the most of my small beginning with my Lord I created a schedule that I set in time blocks or as Ash Roy explains “time-boxing”.

Ash was recently featured in my dear friend Carol Amato’s site. Here Ash gave excellent productivity tips to apply to your online business. If you understand the principles, my friend, you can apply them to your time management for your personal life and ministry.

So I schedule my time with the Lord. Then within that time I do set timers. Not that I am limiting God but rather to limit my mind from wondering. This is easy to do early in the morning as I am tempted to whip out my list of things I look forward to doing.

I set a timer to spend time with my Lord. I schedule time to listen to God honoring music that encourages me to meditate on the truth of who God is – on the truth of God, His purpose and His relationship with me. If you are wondering what kind of music I am referring to you can visit Abigail Miller’s site to get an idea or I also now include Hymns with a biblical truth emphasis that you can play located on the right side of the Scripture Look site. Spend a few minutes meditating on the Lord with scriptural music or simply listen to one song.

Then spend time reading God’s word. I highly recommend you read through your Bible especially if you never have. Spend either a few minutes each day or read a certain amount of chapters but read it through. It does not matter if you read through in a year or more but be willing to read the entire Bible through and be consistent…everyday.

Spend some quiet time in prayer and meditation. Take up a Bible verse that you desire to think on regularly and meditate on it. In time you may find you also memorize it.

Now I treat my appointment with my Lord as any appointment. When I am late I am quite embarrassed – aren’t you? God is a real person and we should never take Him for granted. When we agree to meet Him at a scheduled time we should make an effort to be there.

Now for the rest of the day you can follow this basic time management pattern.

Your Time Matters

How will you apply time management today?
What tips do you have? Feel free to comment below.

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“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 What […]